Hrs Returns Victim To Same Building As Suspected Attackers

MIAMI — A teen-age boy who told police he had been sexually abused had to spend the night in the same building as his suspected attackers, police said Tuesday.

The unidentified 16-year-old told Hialeah police that he had been attacked by six other students at the Montanari Residential Treatment Center, a private school for the emotionally disturbed.

``We requested that the boy not be sent back to the school,`` while the investigation continued, said Detective Ralph Garcia of the Juvenile Division.

But the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, which places children in the Montanari school, decided that the boy should go back to the school and he stayed there Sunday night. The six suspects were arrested Monday.

Four of the six are juveniles, ranging in age from 14 to 17, and they are being held in a juvenile detention center.

The two adult suspects, Larry Dozier, 28, and David Long, 23, are being held without bond in the Dade County Jail, Garcia said.

Two of the suspects have confessed, said the arrest affidavit.

Linda Berkowitz, District Adminstrator for HRS in Dade County said HRS was investigating the case.

``There is only one circumstance where we would send a child back: If the facility could reasonably assure us that the child would not be in danger and that there would be adequate supervision,`` she said.

The Montanari Center takes some of the most difficult cases, said Berkowitz, who recalled only one or two instances of problems there.

The police did not have the authority to remove the boy who made the allegations from the school, Garcia said.

``The question that is raised by this investigation is that this is an emotionally disturbed child whose pleas have been ignored,`` Garcia said.

``The boy made indications that he had told staff members at school that this had happened and that he had been told to shut up,`` he said.

John Yermack, business manager at the Montanari Center, said he could not comment during the investigation.